Dowelmax - Exterior applications

[Charles Wilson]

I want to build a couple of storm doors and a bunch of storm windows for my house.

That being said, how do the dowels hold up for exterior applications?

Anyone post some pics of storm doors, regular wooden doors, or wooden storms that people made?

Thanks in advance,

Chuck

[J. Z. Guest]

If you use the right glue, such as poly or TBIII, it should be no different than any other form of door joinery. Maybe even better, since the wood will be able to expand & contract without stressing tenons across their width.

[Peter Quinn]

I haven't used a dowelmax, but have made storm sashes with cope/stick and dowels and they seem to last fine. I made my own 3/8" dowel stock from the same species as the windows using 4 passes on a 3/16" quarter round cutter. Obviously use of a water proof glue and proper sash construction methods is essential for any sash as well as proper painting/priming. As an expirement I made some using gorilla glue (polyurathane) and some with titebond III, no noticeable difference after a few years.

I have had true mortise and tennon sashes and wooden storms fall apart in my hands apon removal...real cute when the glass comes flying at you..thru tennons are a bad idea for windows, dowels might actually be better.

I don't care how you make the storm doors, if they are made of wood they need a good soffit or portico to give them any real life, and you must maintain the finish. Again I think dowels/tongue and groove construction is fine for that application, the real challenge is between the wood and the weather. You want the dowels to penitrate 2/3 minimum width of the styles into both parts which suggests a 5 1/2" dowel for typical door applications. You need a long bit and a long dowel!